Secondus says no impunity must be condoned in PDP
By Ibrahim Ishaya, News Editor
For the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) faithful who had hoped that the Appeal Court ruling on Friday which gave the party the green light to proceed with its national convention scheduled to hold this weekend in Abuja will bring succour, it may not yet be uhuru after all.
Prince Uche Secondus, the suspended National Chairman of the PDP, suffered a humiliating legal defeat on Friday when the Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, ordered the opposition party to go ahead with its planned National Convention unhindered.
This followed the dismissal of the application by Secondus seeking the suspension of the party’s Convention scheduled for October 30 and 31.
The three-man appeal panel led by Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani, in a unanimous decision on the application CA/PH/339/2021, held that Secondus’ application was only aimed at distracting the party from going on with the convention.
Secondus had urged the national convention scheduled to hold on October 30, 31.
But the panel of judges demurred, insisting that Secondus was targeting to re-contest the same office he was sacked from.
But apparently dissatisfied with the verdict, Secondus vowed to appeal the ruling at the country’s apex court.
His position was made known through his media adviser, Ike Abonyi.
Reacting through a statement titled, “Impunity must be resisted, am appealing the Ruling,” which was made available to TheNiche Secondus vowed not to allow anyone abuse the PDP Constitution.
“I have just been briefed of the ruling of the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt dismissing my motion to halt the National Convention of the party. I respect the position of the court even though I disagree totally with it,” the statement read.
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“Even as the substantive case is still pending at the Court of Appeal, I have instructed my lawyers to study the ruling with a view to appealing it immediately as no abuse of the constitution of our dear party should be allowed to stand.
“The issue is not about Prince Uche Secondus but about the sanctity of our party’s constitution and core democratic principles of justice and rule of law not only in PDP but in our democracy. No impunity must be condoned.
“I will therefore wish to emphasis the fact that I did not take the party to court and would not have done that. As a foundation member of this party who has served at various levels, State Chairman, Chairman of state Chairmen, National Organizing Secretary, Deputy National Chairman, Acting National Chairman and now National Chairman, I am very much abreast with the workings of the party. I have been a witness to how much harm litigations have done to our party in the past and as a result I have been a strong advocate against settling issues in courts.
“This was why I resisted and rejected entreaties of those who wanted me to go to court to halt these forces when it was obvious that they were determined to disrupt my leadership and truncate my tenure in office with the sole objective of hijacking the party for their selfish ulterior motives.”
The embattled former national chairman said to allow the Appeal Court ruling to stand is tantamount to condoning travesty of justice.
“To allow this travesty to stand is to reduce our beloved party to a level where anybody can wake up over night and remove officers against the proscribed constitutional process and the National Chairman for that matter. And purporting to use the judiciary through an exparte order to legitimize same.
“As a major practitioner in our democracy, I am duty bound to protect and defend the sanctity of the provisions of our constitution of which am the custodian.
I wish to therefore at this juncture thank and appreciate leaders and other stakeholders of our party who have called in to express their concerns on this matter and appeal for the understanding of all.
“If those who orchestrated and fostered this avoidable crisis had listened to wise counsel of party leaders and elders who advised the withdrawal of cases, this situation would have been avoidable. I wish the party well as always” Secondus concluded.
